The first signs of spring are beginning to emerge and so too are the shoots of the next biotech from drug designer J. Jean Cui, Ph.D.
BlossomHill Therapeutics has raised $100 million in a series B financing, bringing the company’s total fundraising to $173 million so far. The round was led by Colt Ventures, with Cormorant Asset Management, OrbiMed, Vivo Capital, Hercules BioVentures Partners LLC, Plaisance Capital Management LLC, H&D Asset Management and others. BlossomHill last raised funds in March 2021.
The biotech will use the cash to develop a pipeline of medicines for multiple high-need cancers and autoimmune diseases. Dubbed a “drug design company,” BlossomHill wants to extend life expectancy and quality of life for patients, combining proven drug design efforts—such as Cui's own—and creativity to develop small molecule drugs.
Cui is a long-time biotech entrepreneur, having formed Turning Point Therapeutics, which was acquired by Bristol Myers Squibb for $4.1 billion in 2022. She served as chief scientific officer at the biotech from October 2013 to January 2020. Prior to that, she did a 10-year stint at Pfizer, where she developed now-approved lung cancer meds Lorbrena and Xalkori. Since coming under BMS’s wing, the Turning Point med repotrectinib has since been approved for lung cancer as well and is marketed as Augtyro.
“It is a privilege to partner with Dr. Jean Cui and her team at BlossomHill. We have been highly impressed with her drug design capabilities and the innovative pipeline she has built,” said Sundeep Agrawal, M.D., general partner at Colt Ventures. “Jean has an outstanding track record of designing three FDA-approved cancer drugs, and we look forward to supporting the company’s next phase of development.”
This time around, Cui will serve as CEO. Her fellow Turning Point co-founder Y. Peter Li, Ph.D., will take the role of executive chairman. And the deeper you go into BlossomHill’s C-suite, the more the name Turning Point turns up, with General Counsel Vincent Liptak, Ph.D., Senior Vice President, Clinical Development Zachary Zimmerman, M.D., Ph.D., and Senior Vice President, Translational Medicine, Companion Diagnostics and Biomarkers Armin Graber, Ph.D., all previously working at the biotech.
“We are excited to continue to support BlossomHill Therapeutics’ creative, trailblazing drug development team in its mission of bringing potentially best-in-class drug treatment to meaningfully improve patient lives,” said Bihua Chen, Cormorant Asset Management founder.
Cui said the next year will be important for BlossomHill, with plans to move the biotech’s first two oncology programs into phase 1, as well as advancing other preclinical programs towards investigational new drug filings.